Muckrakers exposed corruption and injustices in ways that forced society to examine and confront these issues. We owe many social reforms to the efforts of these brave people.
Category Archives: An Age of Realism
Greed Isn’t Good: Wealth Could Make People Unethical
What motivates us to be greedy? Who is likely to be more greedy: people with more or with less? Read about a study that was designed to answer questions like these.
The 19th-Century Fight Against Bacteria-Ridden Milk Preserved With Embalming Fluid
Food industries did not always have the best interests of their consumers in mind. This is especially the case with “embalmed milk,” a tainted dairy product.
Ten Days in a Madhouse: The Woman Who Got Herself Committed
Nellie Bly risked injury and insanity to report on the horrible conditions of mental institutions in the late 1880s. Her undercover investigation led to public awareness and reform
Jacob Riis
Jacob Riis brought the darkness of New York City’s tenement housing into light with his photos. This forced America to confront the brutal conditions that impoverished people faced.
Two amputations a week: the cost of working in a US meat plant
Despite increased training and safety measures, serious injuries for US meat plant workers is not a thing of the past. This article details the dangers workers face while on the job.
What Are Ag-Gag Laws and Why Are They Dangerous?
Whistleblowers have cause for alarm due to “ag-gag” laws that prohibit undercover videos of farm activity. While the videos have the potential to harm the agriculture industry, they can also expose illegal and immoral activities.
How Regulation Really Does Change Eating Behavior
Can laws make people healthier? A nutrition professor at New York University shares her perspective on the effectiveness of regulation in improving eating behaviors and public health.
Tenements
In the last half of the 1800s, thousands of urban poor people, many who were immigrants, lived in overcrowded and unsafe tenement buildings. This article describes how tenements came into being and were eventually phased out.
This Mysterious Event Led to the Spanish-American War
This video gives a brief overview of the event that initiated the Spanish-American War, as well as a history of the Battle of Manila Bay.
In the Gilded Age, Americans loved and feared the railroad companies — and it can teach Big Tech a valuable lesson
Tech company CEO Richard White compares current internet service providers and how to regulate them to railroad companies of the Gilded Age.
Jack London’s mark on literature
Professor and author Jeanne C. Reesman extols the writing of Jack London.
Casual Perfection
Critic Meghan O’Rourke argues that publishing drafts of Elizabeth Bishop’s work reveals more of the American poet’s brilliance.
The Challenges and Opportunites of 21st Century Muckracking
In part of its 21st Century Muckrakers series, Nieman Reports, a foundation that seeks to advance the standards of journalism, outlines the obstacles and advantages of contemporary investigative reporting.
Another Obama Decision Reversed? Now It’s About Food Safety.
This article documents the current disputes about the safety of workers in the meat processing and meat packing industry.
Mind Ablaze
Critic Jayne Anne Phillips outlines Stephen Crane’s life as she reviews Stephen Crane: A Life of Fire, a 2014 biography of the American author written by Paul Sorrentino.
Billionaire Philanthropists Are Shaping a New Gilded Age
Is the solution to economic inequality for billionaires to give it back? Author David Callahan talks to the University of Pennyslvania’s Knowledge@Wharton podcast host about his new book, The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age, in which he wites about this topic.
What Was the Klondike Gold Rush?
From 1897 to 1898, tens of thousands of people traveled to Alaska in search of gold. Click the links throughout the article for more photos, maps, and information.
How the West Was Won . . . By Waitresses
In 1878, Fred Harvey began building restaurants along the Santa Fe railway. After a fight broke out among male staff, he fired them and hired young women to take their place. These waitress jobs were a small step toward women’s independence.
Dispatches from the Jungle: The Writers Who Reformed America
Learn about five muckracking journalists who affected social change around the turn of the twentieth century.